£3 Million Awarded Following Aguamar Hotel Illness Outbreak

We acted for 652 British tourists whose summer holidays at the all-inclusive Aguamar Hotel, Majorca during 1997 and 1998 were ruined by outbreaks of salmonella food poisoning caused by failings in food hygiene procedures at the hotel.

The 1998 outbreak affected so many people that, at one stage, doctors were going door to door round the hotel to see who needed help and many people were admitted to hospital in Palma.

More than 520 of our clients suffered unpleasant gastric symptoms and 162 of them were shown to have become infected by salmonella bacteria. While most of them made a full recovery, unfortunately over 110 of them developed permanent Irritable Bowel Syndrome caused by their holiday infections.

We brought claims on behalf of our clients against the tour operator, Sunworld Holidays Ltd (now trading as Thomas Cook Tour Operations Ltd), who admitted liability for every claim. As a result of extensive negotiations with the Defendant we succeeded in recovering a grand total £3,071,000 in compensation for our clients. The highest award for the most seriously ill of our clients was over £38,500.

Julie C went to the Aguamar Hotel 1998 with her (now ex) husband. They both suffered a severe gastric illness and had to return home early. Julie had joint pains (reactive arthritis) for about 2 months after the holiday and she also developed permanent Irritable Bowel Syndrome as a result of her gastric infection. We were able to negotiate settlement of almost £19,000 on her behalf.

Julie said: "I trained in hotel management and I’ve worked in hotels and restaurants, so I know how hotels and restaurants should be run. It makes me very angry that the proper food hygiene procedures were not in place at the Aguamar Hotel. It’s absolutely appalling that no-one ever took steps to bring standards up to scratch."

Our Social Channels

We've Moved

Thomas Eggar is now Irwin Mitchell.
We have changed our name but we will continue to provide the highest standard of service to businesses and individuals delivered by the same people.
For more information about the merger, please visit the About Us page.